Being an unknown always hurts someone, because a lot of the judging is still reputation based. Therefore, if you're not well known, you need to have strong technical content to make the judges take notice of you quicker. Without a 3-3, the judges at Nationals cared even less about Cesario because they just assume she's a random middle-of-the-pack skater who won't ever be on the podium.

Being an unknown always hurts someone, because a lot of the judging is still reputation based. Therefore, if you're not well known, you need to have strong technical content to make the judges take notice of you quicker. Without a 3-3, the judges at Nationals cared even less about Cesario because they just assume she's a random middle-of-the-pack skater who won't ever be on the podium.

I agree with this too. Even skaters who don't have a 3-3, like Ashley, did have a 3-3 in the past (or at least attempted them regularly). Aside from the very top skaters, competitors need solid technical content to get the PCS marks.